Mary Landrieu

I'm personally honored and thrilled to be a small part of this process.

I am so pleased and honored to present both of these, Mr. Chairman, for your consideration, and the Committee.

I also certainly join with her, and I'm extremely supportive of, the nomination of Judge Jane Triche-Milazzo as well.

You will not be disappointed should you see them through to the Senate.

I can tell you, being a Louisiana citizen, his and others' work on those public corruption cases has been an enormous public service that we're all grateful for.

Their Louisiana teammates represented our United States very well on the field.

There are many companies that are looking to do the research. But in Louisiana we have what all the byproducts, or the initial products you've discussed here at the table.

I think we believe, at least I believe, let me just speak for myself, that we've given you the green light.

I'm all for not picking one design and moving forward. But I'm also for giving industry some signals as to what designs could potentially be, you know, be accelerated more quickly.

It is an excellent example of public-private partnerships, which the two of us are very supportive of.

Our whole delegation is working on it with the other gulf coast Senators. We will continue to push it. It is extremely important.

Thank you for everything that you have done not just for this industry, but for our citizens and our State.

I believe that the Congress should also require continued reporting on the amount of uncollected duties.

There is $1 billion-plus on the table that we are not collecting.

But how long does that rate last?

Because they don't have an ability to surge their personnel or et cetera?

But no fines have been assessed. So you all reported them. You did what you were supposed to do.

I think that would be a very practical and direct impact change that could address this problem.

You also mentioned that China accounted for 90 percent of uncollected duties.

Four industries accounted for 80 percent?

Are you hearing complaints or have any evidence to suggest or testimony to give about the health and safety risk associated with some of these products?

We are strong supporters of the retrospective system that we have, as long as Customs and DOC have the tools necessary to collect the duties.

You rightly noted that the next step was to ensure that all the duties owed under the orders were, in fact, being paid.

We are very grateful to Senator Landrieu for her championship on this important issue.

And how long does it last?